PAC MAN: Coffman’s Campaign Goes After Romanoff’s Hypocrisy

Former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff made a calculated risk back in 2010 when he tried to run to the left of incumbent Democratic Senator Michael Bennet by vowing not to take any PAC money. He did this because he knew all of the PAC money would be going to Bennet anyway. It was a political tactic by Romanoff to try and attack a strength of Bennet. Unfortunately for Romanoff, it didn’t work and he utterly failed in the primary. Now, because of that move four years ago, Romanoff will never be able to take PAC money again the rest of the many, many campaigns he will run, as doing so will having him easily branded as a hypocrite and flip-flopper. But, as a new memo from the campaign of Rep. Mike Coffman shows, Romanoff’s promise to not receive PAC money amounts to little more than making PAC dollars jump through a few extra hoops so that Andy can be technically correct. As a statement from Coffman’s campaign says:

We are getting a little weary of Andrew Romanoff’s holier-than-thou routine when it comes to money in politics. Hardly a day goes by when Romanoff isn’t quoted as detesting the influence of money in politics…

Andrew Romanoff’s special interest mantra is a dishonest ruse. Romanoff has a long history of raising corporate, lobbyist, Political Action Committee (PAC) and 7-figure dark money contributions.

Romanoff allegedly detests corporate contributions, even though in this cycle and those previous he’s raised millions from corporate tycoons.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg PeakNation™. The Coffman campaign then spends the next several pages, absolutely ripping Romanoff’s no PAC money myth to shreds. Over six main points they highlight how Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s Hardball called out Romanoff about his no PAC money B.S.; how The Denver Post Editorial Board called him out; how The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank called him out; how The Colorado Indepent’s Mike Littwin called him out. Even Rep. Steve Israel, the chair of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, can’t help himself smirking as he talks to Politico about how Romanoff “doesn’t take” PAC money. Which all leads to the big finish of Coffman’s campaign memo where they list hundreds of PACs that have given money to Romanoff in the past.

All of this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone paying attention to this race as Romanoff has shown he’s willing to lie about being a fiscal conservative, that’s he’s willing to lie about being a moderate (hard to do when you think Obamacare didn’t go far enough), and has basically lied about caring about CO-06 (then again, we can’t fault him for this last one as he just moved in last week and doesn’t know the area that well).

Maybe when Romanoff is considering the next place to run for office, he should pick a state with very strict campaign finance laws, that way he can prevent this whole talking out both sides of his mouth on this issue.